The Black Rock Cafe - Amalgam 1991

Here's a video I just uploaded from a documentary featuring an old band of mind called "Amalgam". I used to use my first name back then - which is "Frank" - but now I use my middle-name "Vyan". Times change, but they also stay the same. Black Rock Cafe - Amalgam 1991

Check out the interview as well as the songs (which did have vocals - but aren't shown). The entire 1-Hour Black Rock Cafe documentary is now available on YouTube at this link. My favorite section is Part 12 with Blakasaurus Mex, who totally ROCK THE HOUSE!!

IMO Some of the best BRC bands at the time aren't in this documentary, although you can hear the band Total Eclipse, which featured former members of the Busboys and Sound Barrier as well as Sammy Hagar's Wabaritas, playing in the background during Part 11 with their song "Hey, You Check Me Out!" Various members of Fishbone and the Chili Peppers attended BRC Meetings. The group "Hello Children" who are mentioned in the film are on Myspace right Here. Members of Civil Rite (now known as Freakjuice) who are also mentioned in the film eventually joined Terrence Trent Darby, Body Count, Michael Franti's Spearhead, Dionne Farris from Arrested Development, Cree Summer as well as Morris Day and the Time. Tom Morello (from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave) was a BRC member with his old band Lock Up, although back then he was kinda quiet and shy. I didn't even realize he had been there until meeting him years later and he recognized *ME* from the BRC at a Dio concert. Weird. Another great group from back then was Planet Z, not to be confused with my own later group - Planet X/Sacto. (Which was a complete accident that I always thought was hilarious!)

Modern groups such as Sevendust are linked to the BRC through Lajon Witherspoon who used to be in a Living Colour cover band. Not to mention King's X, Stevie Salas and his partner for the group Nicklebag Bernard Fowler, David Ryan Harris' Band Follow For Now, England's Skunk Anansie and Ra. Brand new groups such as Blaxmyth, Headrush and this great new band I just discovered called Asphalt Messiah - and naturally myself - are still breaking down barriers and preconceptions - even our own - today. The documentary is great, but it was just the tip of the iceberg.

Vyan